32 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
democratic government was an impossibility. At that time John Stuart Mill and Mr. Hare were advocating proportional repre- sentation as one means of escape from the dominance of party factions. A few citizens of Geneva became convinced that pro- portional representation along with the referendum and popular initiative in legislation was just the thing they needed to com- plete their democratic system of government. So in 1868, three years after the bloody riot, a society was organized to advocate the adoption of proportional representation. Professor Wuarin of the chair of sociology in the Geneva University has been a prominent factor in this propaganda, and he told me many interesting things about it. It was a good illustration of the "'faith as a grain of mustard seed which removes mountains."
There were only a half dozen or so who could be got to take any active interest in the subject. According to Professor Wuarin's account a large proportion of the real work was done by a citizen of Geneva who makes a living by selling ribbons. For a quarter of a century this little society labored with no apparent success. Three years ago in the little Italian canton of Ticino the Catholics and Protestants were ready to cut each other's throats over a political quarrel, and they were induced to accept proportional representation as a means of deliverance. Two cantons followed and the promoters of the reform are well assured that all the cantons will adopt it in the near future. I do not write this to give you any information as to the nature or the merits of proportional representation. It has been well written up in our American magazines. I allude to it for the special pur- pose of illustrating my observation of the marked respect which the Swiss show for the private opinion of the voter. Here is a little society which has spent a quarter of a century in persuad- ing a nation to adopt a radical change in political methods. Men do not do a thing like that who are not in dead earnest about it. After twenty-six years a canton had been induced to go so far as to submit the question of the adoption of propor- tional representation to a vote of the people. How do you sup- pose that little group of men who had for so many years been
